Stony Brook University

I don't even know where to start with Stony Brook. I'll start out with the few positives that there are. A lot of their STEM programs are world renowned and considered to be the best in the world. The price of attending is reasonable. And that's about it.

Stony Brook has absolutely ruined my life. In high school, I was in the top 7% of my class and had taken 5 APs, still keeping my grades in the A range. I took AP Calculus in high school and retook it at Stony Brook in hopes of getting a better understanding. This was a mistake. The math program here is absolutely horrendous. Even with having a 90+ average in AP Calculus, I still got a B- in the class. The professor was THAT bad. Now, I am in calc 3 and on the verge of failing. With the math department here, it's either you learn nothing and just get by by memorizing practice tests instead of learning, or you are so lost that you understand nothing. There is no in between. It's very hard to get into classes that you want, and they don't make switching majors accessible either. I don't even know where to find a good advisor.

On top of poor academics, their resources for mental health are nonexistent. CAPS is here, but if you have anything more than mild depression like me, you'll get referred somewhere else where you have to pay for your sessions. The resources for reporting incidents on campus are horrible as well. Their food is also horrible. There's hardly any variety and it's super overpriced. I couldn't get into a cooking building, so I am stuck with a meal plan even though buying groceries would be 10x cheaper. That is if I could find a way to get groceries. Their off campus bus service is horrible. And you can't have a car until JUNIOR year. So, not only are you stuck with horrible campus food, you couldn't even get off campus if you wanted to. The dorms suck, the room selection process is horrible, and it seems like everybody is miserable here. My high school has more spirit. The clubs here are mediocre at best. Everyone goes home on weekends and there is no sense of unity whatsoever here. All in all, the only thing they have going for them is the fact that they supposedly have world renowned programs. But good luck passing them, even if you were like me who graduated high school with honors and took APs. This is the worst college experience I could have asked for and I cannot wait to transfer.

1st Year Female -- Class 1921

Faculty Accessibility: B+, Collaboration/Competitive: F

I would never recommend anyone to attend this university for pre-med. The science department is horrendous, and you are pretty much teaching yourself EVERYTHING. If you do not have a VERY strong background in science, you will not do well. The ONLY way to survive is to form study groups early on or to get outside tutoring, as the tutoring center is booked the first week of school, all the way through to the end of the semester. The T.A's that monitor the labs are very unhelpful and expect you to know everything, which is impossible to know something you've never done before. The amount of busywork they give you takes away from the actual time that could be spent studying, and it's very counter-productive to your grades. There is an online assessment called ALEKS that's due every week, it's the biggest waste of time and sometimes it takes upwards of 6 hrs just to finish. The homework is pilled on you back to back to the point you aren't doing homework for comprehension purposes, you're doing it just to meet a deadline. If they got rid of all the busywork and allowed you time to study, the course wouldn't be so hard. The first day of chem. class we were assigned 4 assignments that took most of the class 17 hrs to do, bare in mind none of us had the textbook just yet (that was fun, scrambling for the book). The average for most of the exams are a "D" but they curve the exams so much that a "D" can become a "B" and they do this so it won't look so bad that the professor has 250 out of 300 students failing their exams. The review for the exam consists of the professor reading the slides he read the previous class that are full of errors and incorrect answers, so be very careful when studying from the slides, because they most often have inaccurate information on them. Oh and each class has a sub-class called recitation. for example, i registered for calc. and chem. ONLY and I have a total of 6 classes and I get homework from 5 of them that's graded and averaged in with my chem. and math grade. So chem. actually comes with 4 classes that cannot be broken up -_-, because you have to take the lab with chem. and math comes with an additional class. I have never been to such a poorly organized institution in my life. This school has made me feel inadequate and incompetent at times and I have to step back and remind myself that I've obtained a four year degree within two years and managed to graduate with honors. So it's not me, its's this school. It'does not set you up for success at all. I'm not sure about the other majors, but please do yourself a favor and look into another school for pre-med. You will save yourself time, money, and mental fatigue. TRUST ME.

1st Year Female -- Class 1922

Campus Aesthetics: A+, Education Quality: F

I genuinely feel depressed at stony brook and I'm in my first semester. The professors truly do not sufficiently teach the material needs to succeed for an exam. I feel hopeless and trapped here because there is nothing to do and there is no life outside the university. Everyone here is WAY to intense and cutthroat to the point where it stresses me out. If you aren't into this intense competition, do not come here. Also most of the classes are 500 people or more and they only focus on weeding people out of the pre medical curriculum. I believe that if you have a dream, a college should support you in reaching it, not try to get you to change your mind. I will still be pursuing medical school at the other college I transfer to. This was obviously not my first choice and I'm thankful to be transferring next semester. One of the worst experiences of my life.

1st Year Female -- Class 1922

Extracurricular Activities: B, Education Quality: F